UK: "Riot" at private children's..
01 May 1998
A fracas at a privatised children's secure training centre (STC) run by Rebound, a subsidiary of Group 4, resulted in 30 Kent police riot officers and dogs being introduced to restore control in June. The incident, at the Medway STC in Rochester, Kent, which at the time of the disturbance housed 15 vulnerable children, saw three 14-year olds arrested by police. A Home Office inquiry has been launched to investigate the disturbance.
Medway, the first of five Secure Training Centres introduced under the Criminal Justice and Public Order Act 1994, was launched with a fanfare of publicity last April, despite being opposed by the Labour government when in opposition. In 1993 when in opposition prime minister, Tony Blair, said of the centres:
"It is really short-sighted beyond belief to invest large sums of money in building new penal institutions for 200 young people when we are neglecting programmes that are far less expensive and which may diminish the numbers that go to such institutions."
The STCs also received criticism from penal reform organisations who raised strenuous objections to the role of the privatised institution and the lack of staff training. The private sector prison officers undergo eight weeks training, "most of it centring around physical restraint techniques taught by the Prison Service College."
The Howard League's Fran Russell, in an article in the Guardian last year, saw the Labour Party's volte-face as a continuation of the previous government's "campaign to portray children as evil and dangerous". "This route may seem politically expedient in the short term", she warned, "but it will be expensive and ineffective in the long run."
The Medway centre is designed to hold 40 children, aged between 12 and 15, who have committed at least three punishable offences, and who have "a history of disrupted and chaotic lifestyles, poor relationships with parents and step-parents, disproportionate experience of loss, poor school histories, alcohol and drug misuse, and psychological or counselling help." They are supervised by a staff of 100. The children, who are euphemistically referred to as "trainees", are held at a cost of ?2,400 a week under Secure Training Orders which can detain them for up to one year.
Following the disturbances, Frances Crook, of the Howard League, expressed concern for the safety of the children under the privatised regime and called for the Centre to be closed:
The centre should be closed. If this had happened in a local authority secure unit, the local social services would have sent in a child protection team within an hour. Because it's Group 4 and it is private no one has to be sent in to see that the children are ok.
Medway is the first of five centres proposed by the former Conservative Home Secretary, Michael Howard. While they were vehemently opposed by the Labour Party as "colleges of crime" in opposition, they are now set to sign an agreement with Group 4 to open additional centres at Olney in Northamptonshire, Medomsley in Durham and Sharpness in Gloucestershire. Another will be built elsewhere.
Fran Russell, "A turn for the Worse" Guardian 16.7.97; Times 26.6.98; Home Office press release 1.7.98.